A damn good Bandeja Paisa @ Restaurante Santafereno

I really cannot believe I have not put fingers to keyboard and bored you all to death about this wonderful place in the all new foodie heaven that is called Brixton Village.

Maybe I just didn’t want to let you know how good the food is there, so you wouldn’t go and make it more difficult for me to get a table when we do our quarterly Colombian blow out.

But let’s be realistic here though, Colombian food is not the best in the world, it is not the most refined either. On the other hand it is big, bold and full of homeliness.

There are several dishes that depending on where you live are considered to be the national dish of Colombia.

Rolos or Bogotanos, those folk from the Capital consider Ajiaco as the number one national dish. But what do they know.

Now Paisas or Antioquenos, those happy chubby folk form Medellin and the coffee zone of Colombia know that the Bandeja Paisa is the National Dish of Colombia.

As you can see I am slightly biased, well married to a Paisa, whose only contact with other Colombians are Paisas, and having visited there on numerous occasions and lived in Paisalandia for a while. Yes I’ve been brain washed. The same as little Adele got me into thinking that all that is good in this world is made by Apple.

The good thing about Colombian food is that it can be transported all over the world, unlike Mexican food, which seems to loose everything the moment it sets foot out of the motherland.

The reason for this is that a lot of food that is cooked in Colombia, whether it be in the home or in a home style restaurant, they all use a secret ingredient. Triguisar.

This powdered spice mix is prevalent in a lot of Colombian dishes, so much so that a lot of them all do taste the same.

This is why the food in Santafereno tastes so much like it does in Colombia. It certainly has that authentic taste to it. The restaurant is also full of Colombians, who like in every other Colombian restaurant, bar or café in London long for that taste of home.

As I was saying the food in Colombia is not Michelin starred quality and never will be. They are hardy mountain folk who prefer size over quality.

There is an expression in Colombia, “Bueno, Bonito y Barrato”. Literally meaning good, beautiful and cheap. Sums it all up.

The Bandeja Paisa in Restaurante Santafereno has all the likely culprits you would expect. Chorizo sausage, slow cooked beans, fried platano, steak or normally minced meat, rice, small arepas and chicharron.

It’s a plate not for the faint hearted, but somehow between the two of us we manage to eat the lot. Well mainly me really.

I love eating at Santafereno but not on a regular basis, otherwise I would end up like your typical large bellied paisa. 

Thai Food @ Kaosarn in Brixton Village

My mistrust of certain cuisines being cooked well in London restaurants has left me either missing out completely or just eating my favourite foods on a very in frequent basis.

The Mexican revolution that happened what, last year. Yes, I was the only one who never went to certain joints to try their tacos and wraps.

Mexican food does not travel well. It should. Like any other complicated cuisine it just takes time and a bit of love to reproduce those wonderful dishes.

But for some reason all we get here is a slap dash bad reproduction churned out to the masses as gourmet food. Tacos are not gourmet food. You go to Mexico and tacos are less than 10p each and sold on street corners as a quick snack.

Thai food, also has that same feeling with me. I love Thai food, in Thailand, just not over awed with it here in London. Although I have found a few places that I think do a pretty bloody good job of recreating another great food on these shores.

Kaosarn is another exponent of this. I’d been meaning to eat there on my last few visits to the new and trendy Brixton Village, but we always got sidetracked into a certain Colombian restaurant, Santafareño.

Now this place does a very good job of producing good Colombian food, like you would get back there. Although that is not difficult as the food is not the best in Latin America. But it is hearty and tasty.

Kaosarn is a small eatery with lots of tables outside for the lucky punters who got there before us and were able to sit in the sun. We were in the comfy and cosy interior.

The menu is short and sweet and is perfect for the size of the place and kitchen. Finally a place that has taken into consideration the space they have to cook in, and shrunk the menu to fit. I wish other places would learn and do the same.

As this was just going to be a light lunch we only opted for a few dishes to get an idea of what they could do.

As we were waiting to order this lovely family and friends were sitting outside eating away with their children, when one of the mothers asked where the toilets were. The waitress told her there was one in the main hall for everyone to use.

This brought on an amazing outburst of this upper class idiotic woman who could not believe that this small simple place had no toilet.

I mean you only have to look around you and see that this is a pretty basic place, and where in the world would they put a toilet.

This woman for the next 5 minutes or so was off on a rant with her friends about how this is just not done. How can it not have a toilet. At one point I wanted to go out there and slap her to shut her up.

I blame Jay Rayner for this, and his reporting of Brixton Village. He was actually eating at Honest Burgers later and I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, but there were a lot of other customers around and I didn’t want to disturb their meals.

Anyhows off from my rant and back to the food. First up were some piping hot fried chicken wings. Damn these were so good. They were crispy and spicy. Man I was a happy bunny. Things were off to a good start. The tamarind dipping sauce was a nice contrast to the spicy skin.

We also ordered a Pad Thai with prawns and the khao pad kra-prow with pork. Both were cooked very well, and the pad Thai was one of the better ones I have had in London. A nice mix of flavours and textures. Big fat juicy prawns as well. No messing here.

The home style stir fry of pork, chillis, Thai basil served with rice and topped by a fried egg was simple, but hit all the right notes with me. Well anything with a fried egg gets my vote.

This is the type of Thai food you get at simple places tucked down alleyways in Bangkok or Chiang Mai that you stumble upon and never ever forget.

When trying to say if the food here is better than say at Thai Kitchen 101, is difficult, as the menus are very different, but what we tried was cooked very well and had a good balance of flavour, texture and spice. Another winner in Brixton.

It’s just a shame that Brixton Village is being gentrified and visited by complete twats. You can’t have everything I suppose.

Finally I make it to Franco Manca

I’m glad we waited to eat at Franco Manca. The chilled midweek service maybe does not have the same vibe as for example a Saturday lunchtime, but strolling up and getting a seat straight away, and also getting a choice of tables was a big big bonus.

I’d heard a lot about the pizzas here, and with everything I had read, I kinda knew how good they were going to be. Sometimes knowing too much beforehand can lead to disappointment. Thankfully this time it did not.

The homemade sourdough slowly proved overnight makes these the best pizza bases in town. These are true gourmet pizzas in every sense of the word, and at such a low price, a steal also.

Both our pizzas were fantastic. My Gloucester Old Spot cured ham, ricotta and mushroom pizza was everything one could hope for in a pizza. The ricotta was smooth and was a nice creamy texture compared to the ham and mushrooms.

The chorizo pizza, part picante, part not was one of the nicest combos I have had. It mixed well with the pillowy pizza base, especially as it had been drizzled in chilli oil.

I really like this place, it’s basic exterior hides the fact that it delivers food that could be served in a top end gourmet pizza restaurant in a posh neighbourhood in west London. Oh they are.

I must try that one to see if it has the same feel as its Brixton mother. I will return, but not sure if I want to queue for an hour on a Saturday. But it is definitely worth taking an afternoon off midweek just for this piece of heaven.

A Day South of the River

We’d had quite a busy day, especially with Lina venturing into a street photographic project with the Photography Gallery. Each week for a year there is a new instruction posted on the web. You then go and see what you can come up with based on that instruction. She is being pretty open minded about the instructions, and churning out some good fotos. 

This weeks one was “Take a Bus. Do weekly shopping. Pop into a public loo” Normally they are quite normal. But this actually fits in well with us re-discovering London, as we now get to go all other on this mad photo journey. So Saturday morning we found ourselves in Brixton market to take a few snaps and more importantly to see where we could lunch.

I was keen on having a pizza at Franco Manca, and the queue when we arrived before noon was ok. So we wandered around for a bit, snapping and the like.
Brixton market has everything that you could want in a street market. Good veggie stalls, a tonne of meat shops selling every cut under the sun. But it's the quantity of fishmongers that is amazing. All the fish looks so good, and at very good prices also. Damn we really have to move. I wish there were more places like this all over London, especially on this scale. Damn those supermarkets.

After a while snapping all and sundry we stopped off for a coffee at Rosie’s, a place I had bizarrely read about whilst we were in Colombia.

Rosie’s has that feel of a floppy old English teashop, with loving cakes in the window and loads of delish produce to buy on the shelves.

We sat outside watching the world go by as you do, or as I do. The coffee was served in 1950’s teacups, ahhhh just like out of Enid Blyton. I also fuelled my addiction and had one of their sausage rolls. Pastry was really nice and flaky, terribly greasy though, and even had some cartilage inside the meat as well. But apart from that it was ok. I wish we had eaten brunch here, but I was thinking pizza.

Wandering around some more I was again in need of a coffee. I have forgone coffee at work this past month to drink green tea, and I am feeling all the better for it. But when I start drinking coffee I need more.

So I stumbled upon Federation Coffee. A great little place serving good coffee in Brixton Village Market. You can tell these guys love their job. The barista made my flat white with care and attention. A rare thing these days. T’was a damn good flat white as well. I wish this place was closer to my home. Maybe I should move. Now that is an idea.

We were tempted by a few places in there to eat. Especially as we’ve discovered it is a little Colombia inside. We counted at least three Colombian eateries. All serving the food I lived on for 8 months. It’s not been long enough yet, although I was tempted to have some Ajiaco. That great potato, corn and chicken soup. Hmmmmm.

By the time we made it back to Franco Manca there were at least 50 people in the queue. Now really is the pizza that good or is it just to see and be seen. I can name many a place like that. So we wandered off. I will try the one in Chiswick and see how good they really are. Although atmosphere plays a big part in restaurants, and Chiswick will be more un-atmospheric than in Brixton. That I can say for sure. I cannot imagine those yummy mummies from Chiswick queuing for more than 5 minutes for anything. I have found that to be a Chiswick thing. They do not queue.

No idea what happened next but we found ourselves in the Railway Tavern in Clapham. I think walking and talking we lost sight of where we were or where to go.

I have been to the Tavern before but just for drinks. There was a reason for that.

They have a good selection of beers. Draught and bottled. But what can I say about the food at the Railway Tavern, apart from it wasn’t very good. I was feeling a bit under the weather at the time. This is my excuse. Maybe it was a punishment for not queuing at Franco Manca, or maybe I have lost my Karma for a bit.

Lina opted for a fish pie, and I and the burger with added cheese and bacon. Well, the fish pie had boiled potato’s (with skins on) mixed in below the slightly burnt crust. More padding, less fish. It actually wasn’t bad. Had a nice flavour but really it was underwhelming. But we were in a pub.

My burger was pretty poor to say the least. The only redeeming feature was that the bun had been toasted. The meat was over cooked and burnt around the edges. The bacon had shrivelled so much I only found it and the cheese with the last bite. The chips were ok though. Nice and crispy on the outside and floury on the inside.

But as I said the pub has some nice beers on offer and for a place just to drink it is pretty good. Just don’t eat there.